This invention relates to a feed rack for feeding photosensitive materials in treating tanks such as a developing tank in an automatic developing machine.
Ordinarily, a feed rack is suspended in each of various treating tanks in an automatic developing machine for developing photosensitive materials to feed the photosensitive materials.
FIGS. 5-9 show one of such conventional feed rack. It comprises a rack body 1, a pair of rack plates 1a, 1b provided on both sides of the rack body 1, a pair of feed rollers 2 and a pair of delivery rollers 3 that are arranged between the upper portions of the rack plates 1a, 1b, a turn roller 4 provided between the lower portions of the rack plates la, 1b, and a plurality of presser rollers 5 arranged around the turn roller 4. A photosensitive material A, held between the pair of feed rollers 2, is fed downwards, guided around the turn roller 4 and then fed upwards. It is then discharged by the pair of delivery rollers 3.
A pair of width guides 6 are provided on both sides of the downward path of the photosensitive material A extending from the feed rollers 2 to the turn roller 4 and its upward path from the turn roller 4 to the delivery rollers 3 to guide the movement of the side edges of the photosensitive material A.
Outside of one of the pair of rack plates 1a, 1b, there are provided a driving wheel 7 in the form of a sprocket and a torque transmission wheel 8 in the form of a bevel gear which is coaxial with the driving wheel 7. When the rack body is hanged in an unillustrated treating tank, the driving wheel 7 engages a chain 9 provided in the upper part of the treating tank at one side. By driving the chain 9, the driving wheel 7 and thus the torque transmission wheel 8 are rotated. The rotation of the wheel 8 is transmitted to various rollers 2, 3, 4 and 5 through a torque transmission mechanism 10.
The mechanism 10 has a roller driving shaft 11 rotatably mounted outside of one of the rack plates 1a, and a bevel gear 12 mounted on the roller driving shaft 11 and meshing with the torque transmission wheel 8. The torque transmitted from the wheel 8 to the roller driving shaft 11 is transmitted through a pair of bevel gears 13a, 13b to an intermediate shaft 14 and then through a mutually meshing spur gears 15a, 15b to the feed rollers 2 and the delivery rollers 3.
The rotation of the roller driving shaft 11 is also transmitted through mutually meshing bevel gears 16a, 16b to a roller shaft 4a of the turn roller 4 and then through mutually meshing spur gears 17a, 17b to the presser rollers 5.
If a photosensitive material A gets stuck in the rack body 1 or for maintenance of the rack such as when cleaning the rack, the rack body 1 has to be raised out of the developing tank to turn the respective rollers 2, 3, 4 and 5 in this state.
In order to turn the rollers 2, 3, 4 and 5, the driving wheel 7, which is covered with lubricants such as grease, has to be turned by hand, so that the hand tends to be soiled with lubricants. Furthermore, an operator will feel pain in the hand when turning the driving wheel because he has to touch its teeth.
The intermediate shaft 14 and the roller shaft 4a of the turn roller 4 carry two each gears, i.e. bevel gears 13a, 16band spur gears 15b, 17b. Thus, the torque transmission mechanism 10 comprises so many parts and thus is bulky and requires a long time to assemble. Moreover, its dimensional accuracy after assembled tends to be low.